I spent a weekend seeing the sights in Frankfurt, Germany. I flew in on Friday afternoon, and flew back Monday.
Getting there:
Frankfurt's main airport is served by all manner of international airlines, and is one of the top hubs for air travel in Europe. It's the home of Lufthansa, but depending on where you're flying from, other airlines are sometimes cheaper. I arrived from the United Kingdom via Amsterdam on KLM. Frankfurt also has a second airport, Hahn, which is served by some of Europe's low-cost airlines, but unless a low-cost airline has a direct flight to Frankfurt, the price isn't likely to be much different than that of a mainstream one.
Getting in:
Germany is a party to the Schengen agreement, under which citizens of numerous European countries and some overseas countries such as the United States are allowed to enter with only a passport, and no visa is required. Once you've entered a Schengen country and gotten your passport stamped, you can travel freely within the Schengen area. Since I flew in from another Schengen country, I wasn't required to go through immigrations when I arrived.
Where to stay:
There are many hotels available in Frankfurt, including several with a few kilometers of the airport. I opted to stay in Niederrad, a middle-class neighborhood south of the river, since I had friends there with whom I wanted to go sightseeing. The hotel I selected, Hotel Niederraeder Hof on Triftstrasse, is a modernized older hotel on the far side of the neighborhood from my friends. It was reasonably priced, located directly on the #12 tram and a short walk or tram ride from the Niederrad Bahnhof rail station, two stops from the airport. Several other hotels are in the same neighborhood, and many, many more are across the river in the city center.
How to get around:
Trains, trams and buses are everywhere, so there's little need for an automobile if you primarily want to see the city itself. If you're traveling further out, you may still be able to make do with mass transportation, depending on how far your destination is from a train station. Automated ticket machines are located at train and tram stations, and the regional transportation system has a good web site - www.rmv.de - which is available in Germany, English, French, Italian, Spanish and Turkish!
What to eat:
As a large cosmopolitan city, Frankfurt offers a wide variety of dining choices. American chains like Subway, Burger King and McDonalds are easy to find, but so are all manner of cuisines. Downtown, I saw everything from French and Italian to Turkish, Indian and Chinese.
What to see:
By all means, get into the city center. I took a tram across the river with a friend, and we alighted at the Roemer, an old town hall with traditional architecture, facing a plaza surrounded by similarly historic buildings. Towering behind them was the spire of the Dommuseum, the city's oldest cathedral, now a museum. From there, we followed a pedestrian mall past Paulskirche to the Zeil, another pedestrian mall where many popular (and expensive) brands have stores.
We walked along the Zeil past Katharinenkirche and Alte Oper, then down through a series of parks, past statues of Beethoven and others, until we emerged at the plaza of the European central bank, home to what has to be the world's largest sculpture of the Euro currency symbol. From there it was just a few blocks over to Hauptbahnhof, the central rail station, where we had a bite to eat, did a little shopping, and caught a tram back.
Where (and more importantly, when) to shop:
Frankfurt is a financial center, so visitors may be surprised by the difficulty of spending money on evenings weekends. A good proportion of shops are closed even on Saturdays, and on Sundays even more are. Most things don't stay open, and 24-hour convenience stores like those found in America, Britain or Singapore are virtually unknown.
During opening hours, though, Frankfurt looks like an excellent place to go shopping, since there are many stores featuring popular brands, and many more small ethnic stores selling wares from different countries and cultures around the world.
Getting out:
For a few Euros, the S8 or S9 train will take you directly back to Frankfurt International Airport. From there, everything seems fairly easy, aside from the staff at the security checkpoints wanting to check nearly everyone with hand-held wands and a thorough pat-down.